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Paper Boats of Poetry published an article “I Believe That” by Turkish poet Serkan Engin. 

The full text of the article is below.

I believe that both Armenian and Turkish youth can destroy hatred with collective struggle. I am trying to create and raise awareness by my articles especially in Turkish youth about the Armenian Genocide and also the other genocides which had been perpetrated by our Turkish ancestors like Assyrian, Nestorian, Chaldean, Pontic Greek genocides, so that similiar terrible crimes never perpetrate again.

I am trying to change the wrong perception about Armenians and Greeks in Turkey established by the lies of the official ideology. I am trying to show the awful truths of our history to the Turkish youth, so that we can erase the defaults of racist education in Turkey like saying “One Turk is equal to the whole world” arising from Fascist- Kemalist ideology which had forbidden existence of all ethnic identities in Anatolia except being Turk for more than 90 years. Do you know that Adolf Hitler had said "The first student of Mustafa Kemal was Mussolini, the second is me,” and also "What did Ataturk 10 years ago, we are able to do that now."

I believe that only more conscience can save the World, not big ideologies, big leaders, more money, more weapons or more technology, because none of tough laws can be more powerful than conscience. Conscience can be developed by empathy, and empathy begins with recognizing the pain of the other people. We all have to develop empathy with the all other people in the World who are suffering and stand behind all humans who are oppressed, ignored, despised, exploited, abused.

We have got to succeed in feeling the pain of the all humans all over the World who have different ethnicity, skin colour, language, belief, ideology, gender and sexual orientation from us by refusing all kind of discrimination.

No, I do not apologise just because of Armenian, Assyrian, Nestorian, Chaldean and Pontic Greek genocides, but also I apologise for Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, Darfur, Holocaust and the all other terrible genocides perpetrated by the conscienceless humans of our World, in the name of humanity, as an honourable human with conscience.

I believe that “we shall overcome someday."